1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to electronic messaging and in particular to mechanisms and techniques for combining e-mail and real-time messaging functions. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product that enable e-mail and instant messaging applications to cooperatively interact in accordance with correspondence and client parameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
The many forms of electronic messaging (e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, etc.) have undergone a dramatic surge in development and use in many personal and almost all institutional communications systems. Such electronic messaging systems simplify the task of communication by automating delivery and storage of messages. A prominent characteristic shared by such systems, including e-mail and instant messaging, is the enablement of relatively free-form user communications. That is, although the control/header information is necessarily standardized and structured, the body portion of the respective messages remains relatively unstructured and determined in accordance with user style and preference. A major distinction between such systems is the distinction between stored-message electronic correspondence such as e-mail, voice mail, etc., and real-time messaging such as provided by instant messaging, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), ICQ (I seek you), voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP), etc.
An electronic message recipient (person) is faced with a choice of media to use to respond to any given electronic message. The recipient may, for example, respond by e-mail as a default if the original message was received by email. Similarly, a voice call may be considered the most appropriate response to a received voice mail message.
Many improvements in e-mail technology relate to enhancing conversational communications using address option and formulation tools to increase the efficiency of e-mail drafting and delivery. This is particularly true in the case of the e-mail thread, which is essentially an e-mail “conversation” occurring among two or more e-mail client stations. For example, when an e-mail message is received by a recipient networked computer, well-known e-mail client tools enable the recipient to strategically utilize portions of the content of the received message to respond in some manner. Typical of such options are a “reply to sender” option, a “reply to all” option, a “forward” option, etc. One advantageous feature of such e-mail functions is shared by the “reply” options which provide the message recipient with a convenient reply graphical user interface (GUI) in which some or all of the e-mail address content included in the received message is conveniently pre-loaded into the “send to” address field, thus relieving the recipient/replier from having to manually enter the address information.
While e-mail “reply” and similar functions facilitate electronic messaging conversations, there may be occasions where a more “real-time” media choice would be preferred in communicating between the sender and the recipient.
Along the with development of substantially non-real-time correspondence provided by e-mail, several real-time electronic messaging tools, such as instant messaging have undergone dramatic development. Instant messaging is becoming a very popular form of communication for both personal and business use. Many corporations are encouraging employee instant messaging use by integrating this feature into users' desktops. In contrast with e-mail, instant messaging is an effective tool for quick and concise communication to limited subject matter when the user requires a substantially real-time response.
Conversely to the problems encountered when using e-mail in a rapid correspondence manner, real-time electronic messaging tools such as instant messaging, rely on substantially constant and uninterrupted user attentiveness to provide the desired conversational effect. Instant messaging (IM), for example, employs so-called “presence” data that is used by an instant messaging client to set his/her present instant messaging accessibility/activity status. IM software allows a user to set his/her status as “active,” “inactive,” and “do not disturb.” IM users receive various types of communication based on their presence status. For example, “active” users can be requested to join an IM chat session, “inactive” users can receive a single IM message from a given sender, and “do not disturb” users cannot receive any messages from other users. IM software relies on the individual user to change their status (inactive→active) or after a certain period of inactivity user status is automatically changed (active→inactive).
Based on workload, IM message receivers may not change their status frequently or do not pay attention to sametime messages in a timely manner. If the IM message receiver is not responding and the IM message sender has to terminate the IM session, there is a possibility that the sender will not receive confirmation that the receiver (person) read the message and further communications on the topic will be lost.
It would therefore be useful to provide a system and method for enabling greater interactivity between mail-type correspondence and real-time electronic messaging forums such as between e-mail and instant messaging. There is a further need to provide real-time messaging users the ability to automatically send an e-mail message with the IM message contents to the receiver in the event the IM message receiver does not respond within a specified period of time. The present invention addresses these and other needs unresolved by the prior art.